With the Washington offense slumping in the last five minutes of the game against Arizona last night, the Huskies could only watch helplessly as the Wildcats (8-11, 1-7 Pac-10) delivered the final blow in the form of free throws to down the Dawgs, 65-51.

With the loss, the UW women (5-13, 1-7 Pac-10) may have squandered their best chance to get their second Pac-10 win before the top three teams in the conference — Arizona State, Stanford and California — come to town.

“We need to feel this, this is a rough one,” Washington coach Tia Jackson said. “The way we lost this game is disheartening.”

Jackson had stated previously that the Huskies were going in the right direction.

“We were definitely progressing in a good place; I felt like we just hit a wall, got jarred back a little bit,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the Huskies had five goals for the game and only accomplished one.

“The one thing we did do: we had fun in the first half,” Jackson said.

The other four goals were limiting Arizona’s penetration, taking at least seven charges, keeping the Wildcats off the boards and running on the Wildcat defense.

Conversely, Arizona coach Niya Butts believes her team accomplished their goals of getting to the free-throw line, which in turn got them their first Pac-10 win.

Indeed, the Wildcats shot 30 free throws and made 21 of them, with 11 of those coming in the final few minutes.

Despite an early foul discrepancy — the Huskies were called for eight fouls before Arizona’s first with 9:50 left in the first half — the Huskies took a 30-29 lead into the half.

When the Wildcats were called for their first foul, the small but energetic crowd gave a sarcastic standing ovation.

Junior guard Sami Whitcomb led the Dawgs with a 14-point effort. She was supported by junior guard Christina Rozier with 12 points, once again coming out to a quick start.

Freshman guard Kristi Kingma struggled throughout the game, shooting 2-16 from the field, including 2-12 from beyond the arc.

Kingma injured her ankle late in the game and is doubtful for Saturday afternoon’s game against Arizona State.

“I think you could have seen how serious it was,” Jackson said. “She’s in a lot of pain right now.”

Rozier believes the Huskies need to bounce back from last night’s loss quickly.

“We will bounce back from this game; we can’t soak in it,” Rozier said. “We have a game on Saturday, so we’ll have to come out on Saturday and take it to ASU.”

Reach reporter Honsen Lin at sports@dailyuw.com.